IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_12911.html

Standing Tall at Sixteen: The Labor Market Value of Relative Height in Adolescence

Author

Listed:
  • Tiziano Arduini
  • Daniela Iorio
  • Francesca Marazzi

Abstract

We study whether social standing during adolescence has persistent effects on later labor market outcomes, using relative height within school cohorts as a visible, predetermined marker. Using Add Health data, we reinterpret the height premium as positional rather than a return to absolute stature. Being one inch shorter than the tallest classmate is associated with 1.4% lower earnings for males, with no effect for females. The relationship is asymmetric, driven by a penalty for low standing, and persists into mature career. It operates through social integration rather than schooling or occupational sorting, suggesting adolescent hierarchies have long-lasting economic consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiziano Arduini & Daniela Iorio & Francesca Marazzi, 2026. "Standing Tall at Sixteen: The Labor Market Value of Relative Height in Adolescence," CESifo Working Paper Series 12911, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12911
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12911.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12911. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.